Bonehead of the week: California

MRM

MRM

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Since there weren't many wrecks or much controversy, my bonehead nomination goes to NASCAR for continuing to go to California the week after Daytona where the fans could care less.
 
MRM said:
Since there weren't many wrecks or much controversy, my bonehead nomination goes to NASCAR for continuing to go to California the week after Daytona where the fans could care less.
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My vote goes to NASCAR for getting rid of Rockingham and the Southern 500 so Texas and Fontana could get second dates. :mad:

I understand NASCAR wants a Southern California presence, but they've tried everything short of moving the Daytona 500 over there. SoCal is more interested in celebrity fashions and designer brand clothes.
 
My vote goes to RCR for giving my Jeff Burton a piece of $hit car.
 
Atleast Kevin got to see the front of the field. Jeff was getting passed by cars running on 7 cylinders. It was depressing. He NEVER made it out of the 30's.
 
VAJen said:
Atleast Kevin got to see the front of the field. Jeff was getting passed by cars running on 7 cylinders. It was depressing. He NEVER made it out of the 30's.
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Gotta love them ECR engines :sarcasm:
 
My vote goes to Nascar for continuing the "California's a huge market and we need to be there" charade. I didn't even see a single second of the race (along with many others, I'm sure), so I wonder how the numbers were, both there and on TV.

What did the stands look like?
 
VaDirt said:
My vote goes to Nascar for continuing the "California's a huge market and we need to be there" charade. I didn't even see a single second of the race (along with many others, I'm sure), so I wonder how the numbers were, both there and on TV.

What did the stands look like?
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full of blind people, i believe. Said as of saturday night there was a low sale count, but the lines were real long at the ticket windows sunday morning.
 
Cesar says 2/3 of the seats were full, most of them were last minute ticket sales.
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
Cesar says 2/3 of the seats were full, most of them were last minute ticket sales.
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So 2/3rds = ~61,000.
Capacity @ Rockingham = ~60,000.
Looks like a push to me. And, that's assuming the Rock sells out which they weren't doing. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but sometimes one must move on and try something new.
 
barelypure said:
So 2/3rds = ~61,000.
Capacity @ Rockingham = ~60,000.
Looks like a push to me. And, that's assuming the Rock sells out which they weren't doing. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but sometimes one must move on and try something new.
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Rockingham tore down half of it's grandstands, actually, to make room for the new track Little Rock!

61,000 in LA is not a great deal. Kentucky Speedway can sell 61,000 seats for a Truck race and that's out in the middle of nowhere. :eek:

I'm sure you can admit it - Southern California is a market NASCAR cannot win over. They're too busy obsessing over Nicole Kidman's latest dress.
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
Rockingham tore down half of it's grandstands, actually, to make room for the new track Little Rock!

61,000 in LA is not a great deal. Kentucky Speedway can sell 61,000 seats for a Truck race and that's out in the middle of nowhere. :eek:

I'm sure you can admit it - Southern California is a market NASCAR cannot win over. They're too busy obsessing over Nicole Kidman's latest dress.
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The capacity was before any modifications they made after they lost their date.
It held its last race on February 22, 2004. Despite wide speculation that it would be its last race on the NASCAR circuit, the race failed to sell out, falling nearly 10,000 short of the 60,000 capacity.
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barelypure said:
The capacity was before any modifications they made after they lost their date.
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Yes, I realize that. :rolleyes:

The current capacity is 30,000 - which is more than some of the current Nationwide venues support.

I'm asking you -- Is 61,000 seats acceptable for a track that has 91,200 seats when the track is in a very attractive market during a popular tourists time of the year?

That's some 30,000 seats not sold. :eek:

Rockingham, which is located in the middle of Nowhere, NC, still sold most of its seats. Percentage-wise, more than Southern California.

NASCAR says it left Rockingham because it didn't sell out and because the weather was unpredictable.

Well, it seems the weather in Southern California is predictable - rain in February every year. And the track hasn't sold out in years.

Do you think it's acceptable to continue racing there twice a year when they are tracks (Kentucky) that can sell just as many seats as California and bring in more profit for NASCAR?
 
Chicago, Darlington, Homestead, Kansas, Kentucky (NNS), Gateway (NNS), New Hampshire, Phoenix, and Pocono all have fewer total seats than Southern California and sell more seats than Southern California.

Chicago, Darlington, Homestead and Kansas only have one date. Kentucky and Gateway only have Nationwide and Truck races.

And I can tell you Homestead is more expensive than California. So what's the problem Gillian? :confused:
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
I'm sure you can admit it - Southern California is a market NASCAR cannot win over. They're too busy obsessing over Nicole Kidman's latest dress.
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Says the man that obsesses over the Cope twins in their fire suits or over any female race car driver.

Fact of the matter is the markets are very different than what they are marketed to be.

Fontana is about 60 miles away from downtown LA. For people that spend hours a day comuting to work, that is not a treck they want to make.

I was talking to Dan Beaver in the press box Saturday and Sunday, and we both agreed that if NASCAR moved just one of its races from ACS to Irwindale (assuming they install enough seats for 60k people) the LA market would be very viable.
 
basketkase999 said:
Fact of the matter is the markets are very different than what they are marketed to be.

Fontana is about 60 miles away from downtown LA. For people that spend hours a day commuting to work, that is not a track they want to make.

I was talking to Dan Beaver in the press box Saturday and Sunday, and we both agreed that if NASCAR moved just one of its races from ACS to Irwindale (assuming they install enough seats for 60k people) the LA market would be very viable.
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Fixed that for you. ;)

Maybe Gillian Zucker and her staff should take the effort to rebuild Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.



It takes people in DC and Richmond an hour or more to get to work - they still show up at Richmond every year. :rolleyes:
 
AndyMarquisLIVE said:
Fixed that for you. ;)

Maybe Gillian Zucker and her staff should take the effort to rebuild Auto Club Speedway of Southern California.



It takes people in DC and Richmond an hour or more to get to work - they still show up at Richmond every year. :rolleyes:
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Sorry Andy, i'm siding with Cesar here. Yank an ACS date, put the remaining one in march, and give the other to kentucky, and tank one of NHIS's dates and give it to irwindale.
 
basketkase999 said:
Says the man that obsesses over the Cope twins in their fire suits or over any female race car driver.

Fact of the matter is the markets are very different than what they are marketed to be.

Fontana is about 60 miles away from downtown LA. For people that spend hours a day comuting to work, that is not a treck they want to make.

I was talking to Dan Beaver in the press box Saturday and Sunday, and we both agreed that if NASCAR moved just one of its races from ACS to Irwindale (assuming they install enough seats for 60k people) the LA market would be very viable.
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Great Idea, but will the infrastructure support the traffic flow of a Cup date at Irwindale, also if memory serves me correctly they would have to do some major contruction for pits and garages?
 
Mopardh9 said:
Great Idea, but will the infrastructure support the traffic flow of a Cup date at Irwindale, also if memory serves me correctly they would have to do some major contruction for pits and garages?
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oh now you're talking luxury.

I bet half the crew members today don't know what it's like to run out of a 2 car garage and have little more than a 30 foot by 30 foot tent to work under at the track.

I don't think it'd hurt em to run 1 race without the luxuries.
 
basketkase999 said:
Says the man that obsesses over the Cope twins in their fire suits or over any female race car driver.

Fact of the matter is the markets are very different than what they are marketed to be.

Fontana is about 60 miles away from downtown LA. For people that spend hours a day comuting to work, that is not a treck they want to make.

I was talking to Dan Beaver in the press box Saturday and Sunday, and we both agreed that if NASCAR moved just one of its races from ACS to Irwindale (assuming they install enough seats for 60k people) the LA market would be very viable.
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Downtown L.A. is 50 miles from Fontana.
Only about a 30 mile difference between Fontana and Irwindale :idunno:
Drive?? Everyone I know takes the train, no train stop at Irwindale
 
Magnethead said:
oh now you're talking luxury.

I bet half the crew members today don't know what it's like to run out of a 2 car garage and have little more than a 30 foot by 30 foot tent to work under at the track.

I don't think it'd hurt em to run 1 race without the luxuries.
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NEVER HAPPEN
 
Back to the bonehead move of the week, it has to go to the Bif for running over his airhose. That could very well have cost him the race.
 
I must be alone on this... how many people are in the stands has nothing to do with how much I enjoy the race.
 
VaDirt said:
My vote goes to Nascar for continuing the "California's a huge market and we need to be there" charade. I didn't even see a single second of the race (along with many others, I'm sure), so I wonder how the numbers were, both there and on TV.

What did the stands look like?
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You sound like a friend of mine that swore off his girlfriend, then asks everyone else if they've seen her with anyone and what she was doing. ;)
 
barelypure said:
So 2/3rds = ~61,000.
Capacity @ Rockingham = ~60,000.
Looks like a push to me. And, that's assuming the Rock sells out which they weren't doing. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but sometimes one must move on and try something new.
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I'd give a Cup race to Gateway(biased since it is track closest to me). But still, Gateway is a wild place, I think it would support the Sprint Cup quite well.
 
Magnethead said:
oh now you're talking luxury.

I bet half the crew members today don't know what it's like to run out of a 2 car garage and have little more than a 30 foot by 30 foot tent to work under at the track.

I don't think it'd hurt em to run 1 race without the luxuries.
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ever been to BMS ? they work on the cars ON PIT ROAD, they got no fancy garage there, if they got to change a motor they try to find a spot somewhere between the haulers
 
de7xwcc said:
ever been to BMS ? they work on the cars ON PIT ROAD, they got no fancy garage there, if they got to change a motor they try to find a spot somewhere between the haulers
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no i haven't, didn't lknow that. I thought they had a little pit house like martinsville.
 
BMS is a madhouse on Q day when you got the cup guys on one side and the bush boys on the other, i've been itn the pits many times you really got to be careful in there
 
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